Announcements • Final projects – Midterm reports due November 24 (next Tuesday) by 11:59pm (upload to CMS) – State the problem – Describe progress so far, any problems that have come up

What is light? Electromagnetic radiation (EMR) moving along rays in space • R( l ) is EMR, measured in units of power (watts) – l is wavelength Perceiving light • How do we convert radiation into ―color‖? • What part of the spectrum do we see?

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Visible light We ―see‖ electromagnetic radiation in a range of wavelengths

Light spectrum The appearance of light depends on its power spectrum • How much power (or energy) at each wavelength daylight tungsten bulb Our visual system converts a light spectrum into ―color‖ • This is a rather complex transformation fluorescent light

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The human visual system Color perception • Light hits the retina, which contains photosensitive cells – rods and cones • These cells convert the spectrum into a few discrete values

Density of rods and cones Rods and cones are non-uniformly distributed on the retina • Rods responsible for intensity, cones responsible for color • Fovea- Small region (1 or 2°) at the center of the visual field containing the highest density of cones (and no rods). • Less visual acuity in the periphery—many rods wired to the same neuron

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